One of the things that I think has helped me most in my recapitulation of my life on the spiritual path, and in my ongoing reassessment of the value of that life, is dropping the notion of "liberation."
NOT in the sense of liberation from the binding effects of one's thought and actions. I still believe that can and possibly should be achieved; the less attached we are to the play of the inner and outer worlds on our self, the better able we probably are to appreciate the wonder of both worlds. The sense in which I have abandoned "liberation" is the way that many spiritual trips (including Maharishi's) see things -- that once one realizes enlightened one is liberated from the need to ever again self-assess or self-monitor. In enlightenment, such dogma teaches, one is completely "in tune" with God's will or the Laws Of Nature, and thus every thought and action is "right" and wrong thought and wrong action are no longer possible. Off the hook. Home free. No need to ever even be concerned with the "rightness" of our thoughts and actions ever again. I no longer believe this. My own fleeting experiences with enlightened states of consciousness has convinced me that they are 1) completely subjective, and 2) without any appreciable impact on the comings and goings of the relative world. I found it *just* as possible to fuck up when in the throes of some passing state of mind that matched word-for-word MMY's description of one of the "higher" states of consciousness as I did in any lesser or "lower" state of consciousness. My feeling is that this is a clue I should pay attention to. :-) Many spiritual seekers seem to view the realization of enlightenment as synonymous with no longer having to work at life. The Big E will be for them -- at least in their expectations -- a big Get Out Of Jail Free card. They will incur no further negative karma because it will be impossible for them to do so. Every thought and action they have will be essentially perfect, because now that they're all enlightened and all, that's just the nature of life. And they know this because someone told them it was true, and since they assume that the person who told them this is enlightened, it must be true. They're enlightened, after all; *everything* they say is true. :-) In my imagining of How It All Works, the realization of enlightened states of mind doesn't really change ANYTHING outside of the mind that has realized it. It's an additive process, not one based on fundamental changes to How It All Works. "It" continues to work exactly the same way it always did, with the component of 24/7 subjective awareness of our eternal nature added in to the mix. Thoughts still arise, emotions still arise, and karma in the form of outside actions we must react to -- or resist reacting to -- in the relative world still arise. Nothing changes. Before enlightenment, sport wood and carry condoms; after enlightenment, ditto. In my model of How It All Works, the realization of enlightenment would not impact my need to self-assess and self-monitor in any way. I would still have to monitor my thoughts, and assess my fleeting emotions via mindfulness, with the constant realization in mind that I can *always* fuck up. My hope is that if this enlightenment thang ever happens permanently for me, this model will help to keep me from becoming as much of an asshole behind it as some others have been. Holiness doth not prohibit assholiness IMO. And I base this belief on examples we have seen of people who declared their enlightenment. Many of these folks assumed that they now had a cosmic Get Out Of Jail Free card in their wallets, and as a result *stopped* self-monitoring and just assumed that everything they thought and did was perfect. My assessment of their actions was simpler; they were fucking up. The Supposedly Enlightened have done some WAY stupid shit along the Way, stuff that their followers make excuses for and say that they cannot evaluate the same way they would evaluate similar stupid shit in themselves or in normal people because...well...they're enlightened. I don't buy this -- for others, or for myself. Liberation to me implies an even greater need to self-assess and self-monitor, not a relaxation or cessation of those efforts. If the truly enlightened are truly "special" in any way, my hope is that they would perform their mindfulness even more diligently than ever.
